1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a relay apparatus for pagers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Company) and other communication companies are already providing services of a so-called "voice mail" (a "message-leaving dial" service). A user of this service, who carries a pager terminal, has to perform the following steps in order to establish a communication with another person when the user is outdoors. As an example, descriptions are given below as to the case where a person "A" (hereinafter referred to as "A") sends a message to a person "B" (hereinafter referred to as "B"), and then "B", having received the message, returns a message to "A".
As the first step, "A" records a voice message addressed to "B". Next, as the second step, "A" calls up a pager terminal that "B" carries. Then, as the third step, "B" receives a call from "A". As the fourth step, "B" listens to the voice message from "A", and, according to the message, "B" records a voice message addressed to "A" as a "voice mail". As the fifth step, "B" calls up a pager terminal that "A" carries. As the sixth step, "A" receives a call from "B". As the seventh step, "A" listens to the voice message from "B".
It is to be noted that a user is requested to enter a secret number in the second step for security reasons. It is also to be noted that a pager terminal number is usually the same as the telephone number used for calling up the pager terminal.
However, the conventional voice communication system as described above is defective because a user is billed for telephone charges in the first, second, fourth, fifth and seventh steps, and because "A" has to dial three times and "B" has to dial twice at their respective telephone set.